Chapter 117 Leaving School
After waiting on the forum for a full hour, refreshing the page countless times, Song Rushuang finally managed to "snatch up" an order.
She didn't even look at the content when she was grabbing it. The moment the words "S City" flashed before her eyes, Song Rushuang's hands and feet had already sent out the edited team-up post in another thread before her brain could react. After confirming several times that she was the first person to sign up, Song Rushuang secretly breathed a sigh of relief and finally had the leisure to check the submission details.
According to the table, this request for help was posted in a local second-hand group. The poster's ID is Yueyue, and her real name is Shi Yue.
Song Rushuang sent a private message to Su Huaijin and obtained the original post from the publisher.
According to Shi Yue's description, she is in her early twenties and came to S City from another city to work. She rented a bedroom in a community called Qinghuanli. After the outbreak of the virus, she and her two roommates stayed at home. Because they usually couldn't afford to eat out or order takeout, they usually cooked for themselves and stocked up on a lot of things at home, so they were doing alright.
But the next day, they suddenly heard a little girl crying downstairs.
The three initially thought it was a child crying because someone was quarantined at home, but then they realized that Qinghuanli Community was mostly shared rental housing, and most of the residents were migrant workers. There weren't many people with children living there, and the source of the sound was very strange.
"It felt...like it was coming from underground," Shi Yue wrote.
The child cried for two days in a row. On the first morning, her voice was still quite loud, and she cried twice, probably because an adult nearby comforted her.
But then that very night, in the middle of the night, and again the next day, the little girl cried three more times, each time weaker and longer than the last, clearly indicating that the adults trying to comfort her were becoming less responsive.
Shi Yue sensed something was wrong and took turns keeping watch with her two roommates. When the little girl started crying, they pressed their faces against the window and desperately looked in the direction of the crying, but they could only see four or five zombies gathered by the flower bed in the next building, but they couldn't see the little girl herself.
The building where the zombies gathered is one of our neighborhood's buildings facing the main street. The entire ground floor is occupied by rental shops, and they are clustered on the inner side closer to the neighborhood. That particular ground floor used to be a noodle shop, but it closed down at the beginning of the month and was just taken over by a new owner. It's still under renovation. The weekend during the virus outbreak was a fixed rest day, so there were no workers inside; it was just an empty place.
As Shi Yue wrote, she probably felt a chill run down her spine: "So we have absolutely no idea where the little girl is."
[Regarding the floors above the noodle shop, during one of our observations, we happened to see figures moving around in the windows on the second and third floors. The figures didn't look like children, so we guessed they were also attracted by the crying and came out to investigate. And we were fairly certain the crying wasn't coming from above the third floor.]
The child's cries are getting weaker and weaker; he probably won't last much longer. Does anyone nearby have the ability to check on him? Our area is about to experience power outages again. This is a pre-prepared message; if it can save the child's life, it would be a great act of kindness.
[Below is my contact information, address, and information about infected individuals that I have observed...]
Fangzhou's student happened to be in this secondhand group. She scrolled up through the cached chat history and found that a girl named Shi Yue had once sold a yoga mat in the group. The self-pickup address she provided was Qinghuanli Community, so she basically confirmed the reliability of the information.
Nationwide power rationing was implemented in different areas, and S City was no exception. The area where Qinghuanli Community was located lost power at 10 a.m. When Song Rushuang saw this message, she was already unable to contact Shi Yue today.
But since the classmate who forwarded it has already confirmed the reliability of the information...
After thinking it over, Song Rushuang felt it was still worth going to take a look.
Qinghuanli residential area is more than 40 minutes away from Fangzhou by car. However, since Fangzhou itself is located in a remote area, this distance is not actually that far.
Going that way avoids the congested downtown area, so the chances of getting stuck in traffic are very low. Even if you drive carefully, the round trip should only take about two hours.
But if this is true, she could very well save the little girl's life.
Having made up her mind, Song Rushuang told her parents about the situation.
In the past two days, she has already demonstrated her strength to the two through various battles with the simulated zombies, and has also subtly mentioned that she has joined the elite class.
Surprisingly, upon learning that she had been selected for the elite team, the two felt a subtle joy in addition to their worry.
"Really? You're that amazing! But isn't it a bit dangerous?" Xu Mingyu frowned, but when she praised him, the corners of her mouth tried to turn up, making her expression extremely strange.
It vividly illustrates what it means to have mixed feelings of joy and sorrow.
Song Jianguo, as usual, praised, "As expected of my daughter! Wow, out of more than two thousand people in the whole school, only five were selected in the end. That's amazing... But the zombies you're going to fight are definitely not ordinary zombies, right? Is there anything we can do to help?"
Song Rushuang: "..."
Should she respond to the compliments first, or should she comfort both of them first?
In short, Xu Mingyu and Song Jianguo had been struggling with their thoughts for two days. After learning that the others usually followed the principal, they seemed to feel a little relieved. Although they were still worried, they gradually accepted the situation and started exercising even harder every day.
This time, Song Rushuang showed the two of them the post from the person seeking help: "It's not very dangerous, just a few low-level zombies. It's just that ordinary citizens don't know how to deal with them."
"You talk like you're not an ordinary citizen," Xu Mingyu said irritably, but glancing down at the plea for help, she felt heartbroken for the little girl's situation.
The two didn't stop him anymore, but Song Jianguo still asked worriedly, "Are you going alone?"
"No, I'll find a few more people on the forum to go together later..."
While Song Rushuang was still trying to comfort her, there was a sudden knock on the dormitory door.
The door opened, and Sun Wei and Zhang Han were standing outside.
After greeting her aunt and uncle, Zhang Han eagerly asked, "Xiao Shuang, did you post that message?"
“Let’s go together, the three of us! We tried for ages but couldn’t get one, luckily Hanhan recognized your ID,” Sun Wei said.
Although the forum is anonymous, users can use fixed usernames, and the four roommates in the same dormitory are generally aware of each other's usernames.
Song Rushuang laughed: Look, we don't even need to recruit them on the forum, the chosen team members have already delivered themselves to our door!
Many of those who formed teams already had established groups and took on missions to improve their teamwork, but Song Rushuang didn't really need that. The five members of the elite team already had enough synergy, and besides, Su Huaijin was busy with forum matters, and Shen Qingqing wasn't around.
Of the remaining two, Zhang Han was a typical casual player who stayed behind without a fixed team, while Sun Wei, after Song Rushuang and Shen Qingqing joined the elite class, went to find a few girls from the next dormitory to form a team, and they would usually play simulation pod dungeons together.
But two of those girls hadn't returned yet, so she went to find Zhang Han and Song Rushuang to play again.
After spending a few days together, Xu Mingyu and Song Jianguo also grew to like Zhang Han and Sun Wei. Hearing that the three of them were going out together, their worries lessened considerably.
With the team members finalized, Song Rushuang logged onto the forum and replied to her post: [The team is full, sorry!]
Disappointed, the people who had signed up dispersed in a panic, just like Song Rushuang in that hour, and went to find a new team.
The students are so competitive! I wonder how much longer it will take before it's their turn.
*
The three of them submitted their applications to leave school to Fu Qing via their wristbands, specifying the day they would return. They received approval within two minutes and drove away from school in Song Rushuang's car.
Zhang Han and Sun Wei have not left the school since the apocalypse, but after only a few days, looking at the street scene outside, they feel as if they have been in another world.
Song Rushuang was alright. She went to Tian Xuejun's place for a while, but she only stayed in the vicinity of Fangzhou. As they drove out of the school's surrounding area, the scenery in front of them gradually changed from desolate to bustling, and the group couldn't help but fall silent.
Wandering zombies were everywhere, their clothes still stained with fresh blood, a testament to their horrific state before their mutation. Many corpses lay strewn across the road, and bloodstains were everywhere.
Shop windows along the road were smashed, and shelves inside were overturned and in complete disarray. Hearing the sound of car engines, zombies emerged from various dark windows and doorways, their pale faces like sunflowers, slowly turning as the cars passed, their heads tilted back as they roared.
These zombies are like rats and cockroaches in the sewers; you have no idea how many of their kind are lurking in the darkness.
Fortunately, Song Rushuang was driving fast enough that the car had already passed the area where the zombies were gathered before the zombies could react.
They could sense that countless eyes were hidden behind the windows facing the street, watching them alongside the zombies.
The survivors' gazes were heavy and desolate, and for a moment the three of them even hated the sharpness of their senses.
Since we can't save so many people, even knowing they exist is painful.
Song Rushuang controlled the steering wheel, reduced the speed, and carefully avoided the corpses on the road.
No one knows if their relatives and friends are still hiding nearby, watching their closest loved ones slowly rot in the sunlight.
“I ran into that special forces member surnamed Zhou downstairs this morning. She said the authorities have already assembled a team to collect the bodies found on the streets. They’ll take them back to confirm their identities, then cremate them and wait for their families to come and claim them,” Sun Wei said in a low voice. “But there are too many, and the workload is enormous. I estimate they’ve only cleared a small portion of the bodies in the city so far.”
Not everyone can do the job of hauling away corpses from the streets; it also requires the deployment of the military, because areas with a high density of corpses often also have a large number of zombies.
There are so many places where manpower is needed that the group can easily imagine how stretched the resources are.
but……
Song Rushuang and Zhang Han glanced out the window and saw that many of the corpses were already swarming with flies, and their heads were even more dangerous to look at closely.
Zhang Han couldn't bear it and said, "It's not too far from Fangzhou, let me go register."
Fangzhou has a dedicated "corpse recovery team," and because they have enough manpower, they have cleaned up the area around the school very well. But they didn't expect that so many corpses would have piled up just a few streets away. If this continues, the residents along the street will be affected in a few days.
They didn't actually have the right to dispose of the bodies, but special circumstances call for special treatment. After hearing about this, Bai Xianglei and the others expressed their support.
Before cremating each body, Fu Qing would have students take photos for preservation and record the location of discovery to facilitate identification by relatives later. A portion of the cremated ashes would also be collected and placed in jars alongside the photographic archives. Such treatment was remarkably humane in a post-apocalyptic world.
As for what happened to the remaining ashes, Bai Xianglei and the others selectively pretended not to hear it.
Zhang Han registered the body with the bracelet, so the body collection team could take it away the next time they passed by.
Song Rushuang's bracelet is used for navigation.
The student wristband can download maps, but it obviously can't display traffic flow in real time like a certain other brand, so it has to rely on experience.
Every student at Fangzhou had undergone relevant training and specialized memorization, making them almost intimately familiar with S City. From inconspicuous streets and alleys to the locations of various hospitals and police stations, as well as the usual traffic flow on main roads, they had it all memorized. After passing their driving tests, they would form groups to go out and drive around every weekend. Even out-of-town students like Zhang Han were more familiar with the city than the locals.
Therefore, the three of them planned a route before setting off, avoiding roads with heavy traffic and congestion, as well as roads with critical facilities such as hospitals. As expected, the route they chose had very few cars and pedestrians.
Midway through their journey, they encountered a patrol convoy. Both vehicles stopped, and several armed soldiers got out and knocked on the car windows. Upon seeing three young girls inside, they immediately asked if they needed any help.
Upon learning that the three were Fang Zhou's students, the other party's expression changed. He said "Be careful" and let them pass without giving any further instructions.
This surprised Song Rushuang and the other two.
Fang Zhou's reputation seems to have spread among these warriors...
It's like having a special pass, and it feels... kind of nice.
After driving for exactly forty minutes, the entrance to Qinghuanli Community came into view. According to Shi Yue's description, the barrier at the entrance of the community had been damaged by zombies and was being lifted up. The community itself was also quite spacious, and cars could drive in directly without worrying about being blocked from leaving.
When the three arrived and saw that it was indeed the case, their impression of the contributor skyrocketed.
The fact that the other person asked for help not for themselves, but for a little girl they didn't know, and that they were willing to waste their precious online time for it, is already very endearing.
Not to mention, she wrote down the situation in great detail, which not only avoided a lot of trouble, but also ensured the safety of the kind-hearted people who came to help.
Upon entering the residential area, there was a circular flower bed. The three of them found an empty space to park and glanced around. Sure enough, several zombies heard the noise and were staggering over from the same direction.
Before entering the residential area, Sun Wei noticed the signs along the road and pointed to a building next to her: "I just looked outside. The shops on the first floor of this building are under renovation, and there's no one inside. It should be there."
The unit door was open, and you could see directly into the elevator lobby. Although it was daytime, the interior was gloomy and you couldn't see the specific situation.
The shops on the ground floor seem to be completely separate from the residential buildings on the second floor and above. The sign next to them says that floors 2-30 can be accessed from here. In other words, there is no situation where there is another first floor after entering through the unit door.
Song Rushuang thought for a moment, then suddenly pressed the horn.
The car, now at a complete stop, let out a sharp, abrupt horn blast, instantly arousing the previously slow-moving zombies, who swarmed towards the vehicle.
Zhang Han and Sun Wei were also startled. They instinctively drew their knives and axes. Before opening the car door, Sun Wei patted Song Rushuang's arm and complained while clutching her chest, "Next time you do something like this, can you at least let us know beforehand!"
Zombies are one thing, but a horn suddenly blaring in such an absolutely quiet environment is terrifying!
After saying that, the two got out of the car before the zombies surrounded the door and started clearing the area, each taking a different direction.
With a swift stroke of the knife, several zombies fell to the ground.
Shi Yue was right; these were indeed all low-level zombies, and dealing with them wasn't difficult.
only……
Song Rushuang frowned, looking at the residents who had been drawn by the sound and were peeking out of the windows on the second, third, and higher floors. Most of them looked young; there were no parents or children in sight.
Where is that little girl hiding?
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